Diplomacy (Imp1)
In Imperialism, the player is the ruler of a 19th-century Great Power, aiming to become ruler of the world by conquest or by vote. Conquest alone may not be successful; normally you also need diplomacy to reach world dominance. In the Imperialism diplomacy screen, you see a map of the world with nation names. By using the tabs in the middle of the bottom panel, you can gain various types of information about each nation. By using the tabs at the right of the bottom panel, you can change things: *Various treaties can be proposed to other nations, as detailed below, and war can be declared on them. *Trade subsidies may be offered, increasing the prices paid for a nation's export goods, and decrease the price the other nation pays for the player's exports, making trade with the subsidizer nation more profitable for the other nation and thus more likely. *You can promise grants, ranging from $1,000 to $10,000, either once only or "each turn until further notice". Treaties The treaties which may be proposed are: * Non-aggression pact. Only possible between a great power and a minor nation. When a minor nation is attacked by another great power (minor nations never attack), the minor nation will request help from any power with which it signed a non-aggression pact. If the request is honored, the minor nation joins the great power's empire as a colony. * Alliance. An alliance can only be forged between two great powers. When any of them enters a war, the allies are usually asked to wage war as well, and will lose diplomatic points if thy decline. * Request to join an empire. Minor nations will voluntarily join the empire of any power that has been sufficiently kind to them in the past (lots of trade, financial grants, a pact). * Peace treaty. * Declaration of war. This is the only treaty which may not be refused (although no minor nation will ever refuse a non-aggression pact). Consulates and embassies Before a Great Power can reach a trade agreement with a Minor Power, the Great Power must build a Trade Consulate in the Minor Power (at a cost of $500). Before the Great Power can sign a treaty with a Minor Power, the Great Power must build an Embassy in the Minor Power (at a cost of $5,000. The money required to build Trade Consulates and Embassies is significant, especially early in the game, when the player's revenue is limited. All Great Powers automatically possess embassies (incorporating trade consulates) with each other at the beginning of the game. Diplomatic strength Building Diplomatic power can be key to winning the game. When a Great Power is in an alliance with another Great Power, or has signed a non-aggression pact with a Minor Power, the Great Power is expected to go to war if the other nation is attacked. In the case of two Great Powers that share an alliance, if one Great Power starts a war, the other Great Power is also expected to go to war. If a player decides not to honor an alliance or non-aggression pact, the player's Great Power loses diplomatic standing and may find it harder to negotiate alliances in the future. Negotiating a separate peace instead of waging total war will also break an alliance, with the same effect on a Great Power's diplomatic standing as if the Great Power had refused to go to war in the first place. Points from trade If you trade with a country where you have a consulate or an Embassy, then the relationship between your Empire and this nation improves. It is immaterial how many of a type you are trading in one turn. If, for example, you buy three cotton, buy one wool, and sell two furniture, then you have made just three trades: cotton, wool, and furniture. The Readme file for the patch, Readme11, contains the following text: :"In the diplomacy screen, you can have your foreign minister figure out what subsidy will make you the favorite trade partner of a Minor Nation. Simply select any subsidy, hold the control key down, and click on that Minor Nation. The proper subsidy will automatically be placed. If there is no hope of being the favorite, it will place a 100% subsidy." This will work well for the Normal level, but on the next turn the AI will be placing subsidies, so wait another turn before using this feature. For higher difficulty levels, the situation is more complicated, you will have to start with at least a 25% subsidy. For the Hard level and having the sole consulate in a Minor Nation, you need to use the 25% for three trades and then the subsidy can be reduced to 10%. At some point you will work through the starting relationship level and then you can start using the above described method. The User Manual claims that a new consulate starts the turn after you make an overture to establish it. Your foreign minister claims you have a consulate during the first trading session. Davidk believes that the foreign minister is correct. However, in some senses the manual is correct too - in the turn on which you propose the consulate, you cannot offer grants or subsidies or start an embassy, all of which must wait till the next turn. See also *Forum:Imperialism category:Imperialism * 1